


A new beginning

by yui_alex



Category: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Genre: Age Difference, Developing Relationship, F/M, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-06 11:04:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13409928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yui_alex/pseuds/yui_alex
Summary: How Alex is living his life after he enters the real world again, and his feelings for Bethany. His point of view. Some changes to the ending of the movie.





	1. A new beginning part 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was at the movies yesterday, and looked for ff after I came home. Read all of them, and began one myself this morning. Hope you like it, and sorry if I mix up anything, it was written from what I remembered seeing just once. Mostly I follow the plot of the movie, but I made some changes to the ending and this ff will also follow them after the ending of the movie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After watching the movie I was supposed that there was hardly any ff related to Alex and Bethany. This is how I wished the movie would had ended. And I do wish other would write more fiction related to this couple.  
> For those of you who have read the first chapter already, I just made some small changes, nothing to big.

Seconds after I had grabbed Nigel's hand everything, and nothing changed.  
I was home for the first time in twenty years. A quick look on my calendar and the mirror confirmed my suspicion, not a day had gone by here. I was still a high school student when I returned. 

Before meeting the others inside the game I had originally thought I had just been inside the game for a few months. They told me something else, I had been missing for twenty years. Time had gone by surprisingly fast. Luckily I did not feel like a forty year old man when I returned.

As I had stood in front of my mirror, trying to categorize myself with my own face again a though had suddenly entered my mind. I was no longer alone in the jungle.

Without changing out of my sleepwear I ran in the direction of the living room. Before seeing them I could hear my parents voices, discussing something as boring as the weather. Thinking back I might have surprised them both when I began hugging and kissing them as tears ran down my cheeks. After what might have been forever they calmed me down, demanding to know what was wrong. 

I knew they might have a hard time understanding what I had gone through, after all it was a little hard to believe. Who would ever think to imagine that the game my father had found on the beach could transform itself into a videogame and sucked me into it. That I lived in the jungle alone, hunted by dangerous men and beasts. That I waited twenty years until a group of four new players were sucked into the game. And how we all finished the quests together in order to return to our world again.  
My parents would have make me see a shrink. 

Instead I told them a small white lie. I told them I had a nightmare. In a way it was not a lie, it was a nightmare, just that I lived it instead or dreaming it.

When we had all calmed down I still felt shaken up but asked them if I could stay home for the day. Already knowing for certain I could not go back to class acting as my normal self without making my friends suspicious. My mom protested at first, arguing that I had probably just stayed up all night playing video games and that was not a legit reason not to go to school. Not completely sane yet, just hearing the word video game made me afraid. 

It is almost embarrassing to think back at my reaction, but at that time I could not contain myself. I loudly began arguing with my mom, when that did not work my tears came back and I begged her to let me stay home. My father, who had silently stood on the sidelined during the argument stepped in, and told the both of us I could stay home. 

Mom tried to protest again, but my precious father just told her to look at me. To this day I do not know what she saw, but her eyes softened and she said I could go back up to my room. 

The second I walked through the doorway to my bedroom the first thing my eyes fell on was that dreaded game. My first reaction was to smash it, to break the game in order for it to never suck myself or anyone else into the game ever again. 

I even had it in my hands, high over my head, ready to smash it on the floor when a new thought had entered my mind. If I broke it, twenty years from now no one would start playing jumanji. Spencer, Fridge, Martha and Bethany would never play and therefore I would never have met them. Without the game intact I could never be free from it. I might even disappear. 

During our time together inside of jumanji, the four of them had informed me they were all in detention together when they found and started the game. With this knowledge I stuffed the machine, still containing the game into my backpack. Knowing the next time I was in school I would leave it somewhere they would find it twenty years in the future. 

Despite the fact that I had probably only spent one day and night together with them I felt a strong bond connecting the four of us. And in this world they were not even born yet.

As I spent the day home from school I used all my time to write down everything I could remember from the game and the four friends I had met there. Every small detail which could help me identify them if I ever found them in real life. How Spencer was a small kid, and Fridge was huge and had been a member of the school's American football team. Martha had originally been a smart but shy girl who could not flirt with boys. And then there was Bethany. A girl trapped in a middle aged overweight man. She was the one I focused the most on. Her connection to her phone, and how she obviously was a beautiful girl who was popular with the boys. It might be because I was dying, but when she was giving me cps, I did not see Professor Shelly Oberon, instead my eyes was focused on a young beautiful blond girl. 

From that point I was almost certain I had seen the real girl behind the character.

My erotic thoughts during the night slowly but surely changed its focus from celebrities and others around me, and began focusing on that blond girl instead. I had not even seen her properly, but she was the star and reasons for most of my orgasms in the following years.

oOoOo

Years went by, and slowly I managed to push most of the sad memories of loneliness away. Nonetheless they were never forgotten. Spencer, Fridge, Martha and especially Bethany all had a special part in my heart.

My personality had changed a little by the experience. I was still a big fan of heavy metal, but I always had a fear of games. In the past I had loved them, and spent hours upon hours playing them daily. Now I almost got sick just thinking of playing something, especially electronic games.

More than once my parents tried to make me seek professional help but I refused. I knew the reasons for my fears, and it was not something anyone could help me cure. Some of my former friends left me since the only real connection we had was based on video games, but most of them still stayed by my side. After a while they even stopped asking me what had triggered my fear, they accepted that it was now a part of me. 

oOoOo

One beautiful day I got the shock of my life. I was out walking on the street and two young boys around four of five ran by me. In front was a chubby black kid, and running after him was a small skinny white boy. The one in the back yelled toward his friend “Wait for me Fridge!” A few meters in the lead the other child stopped up and turned, facing his friend. When the other child replied with a “you are so slow, Spencer” before he turned around again and kept on running away, my heart stopped for a moment. 

Despite the fact I knew what I had experienced inside jumanji was real, this was the first time I had real evidence. The two children right next to me was part of that chapter of my life. They were real. 

During one of our conversations inside the game I knew the four of them would live close to where I had grown up, but it felt so wrong. What if I ever saw Bethany? She would be the same age as those two boys. The girl of my dreams was a small child. Just the thought made me sick. I was in my twenties lusting for a child. Well, I was lusting for the young woman she was going to become in around fifteen years. Nonetheless I had to change something. 

That evening I applied for collage in a different state and was accepted not long after. My parents was shocked by my decision considering I had never in the past expressed a wish to go to college. Despite my decision of not telling them, the both of them supported my decision with smiles on their faces. 

oOoOo

My first year in college was a great opportunity for me to flirt with other girls, trying to forget Bethany. It did not work.  
When I flirted I imagined that it was her behind that faceless blond woman. A few times I talked with brunettes, but that felt just wrong. If I ever got as far as to kiss them it felt like I was cheating. 

Whatever I did I could not change the perspective. I could not make myself forget a child which was twenty years younger than me, even when there was more than a few girls interested in me. 

In the end I gave up.

I reluctantly realized I would probably die a virgin, and in a way I was okay with that. Bethany was to young for me, and no other woman would ever be the one for me except her.

To think just one day together with her had shifted my life so much. Despite everything I was glad I had met her. 

oOoOo

More years went by and I became fascinated with the development of the mobile phone. As it evolved from just being a handheld phone, to something you could also send messages with and even contained a camera I began to understand some part of Bethany's addiction. 

Nonetheless the development did not stop there, internet for everyone to use on that small screen came with smartphones. Facebook, twitter and Instagram became big parts of people's everyday life, for some it was almost like it took over the lives of many. 

Seeing everyone around me, with their head down focusing on the small computer in their hands I began imagining how it must be for Bethany to grow up with a phone in her hands. Her small fingers holding it and playing around with it, probably sharing a big part of herself online for everyone to see. Just the thought frustrated me.

In my more low points of my life I felt a strong need to log on to my own Facebook page in order to search for Bethany, Martha, and Spencer. I was even desperate enough to want to look up Fridge. Just a short look. Nonetheless I knew if I ever began searching I would never stop. 

oOoOo

My mom got sick and died when I was around thirty five. Cancer. 

For a moment I hated everything. Then I remembered jumanji, and the fact I had been given a second opportunity together with both my parents. It helped a little. Fifteen years was after all more than I imagined ever been given the opportunity to experience when I was lost inside the jungle. 

My dad took it hard as well, but time went by and we often began having deep conversations over beer in front of the fireplace when I visited. 

In one of those late nights the both of us had had more to drink then we normally did and our subject shifted from the good old days and onto questions my father had about me. He told he he and my mother even had a bet about me. He would win if I was straight and my mother would win if I was gay. They had never seen me with anyone, and he argued that I was a social man, with a good job and personality, so the both of them could not understand how I had never had a significant other. 

For a moment I did not say anything except to look down on the label of the beer in my hand. After a few deep breaths I looked  
up and told him he won the bet. Hearing this he did not express joy or anything else, just looked at me straight in the eyes and asked me “Then, why?” It might be because we were both drunk, and the fact that I had kept the secret for fifteen years, but I asked him if he remembered that day I had argued with him and mom about not going to school, and how I suddenly began afraid of games. He told me he remembered.

After he agreed to not intervene with my story I told him everything. Being sucked into the game, and how I lived alone in the jungle for twenty years. How glad I was when I met Spencer, Fridge, Bethany and Martha. I told him all the funny things, like we all looked like characters who had strengths which did not identify with who we really were. How I even knew how to fly a helicopter.  
When I had started talking it was like a dam had broken and the words came flowing out. When I told him meeting the two children on the street, and how they were my main reason for going to college my father gave a small laugh, but he did not  
interrupt me.

I told him how Bethany has given me one of her lives in order for me to live and how I still felt connected to her. How it felt like I was cheating on her if I ever thought about another girl in a sexual way. She was twenty years younger than me, just a child, who did not know me and I loved her without having ever seen her in real life. 

At this point I was sobbing like a child. 

Dad put his drink down on the table and took me into his arms. Holding me for what might have been hours before my tears had wrung me dry. 

When I had collected myself enough to find my words again I asked him if he believed me. Even I had troubles believing my story most of the time, so I was not expecting him to understand what I had gone through. 

Instead my father shocked me when he told me he believed every word that came out of my mouth. His belief shocked me into my core. It was now his time to talk. How my assessment of what would happen if I had come clean that morning I came back was probably right. He, and probably my mother, would just tell me it was a nightmare. Then they would had found me a good shrink. The fact that he knew three of the children I was telling him about strengthen his belief that I was telling the truth.

Dad confessed that he and my mother had discussed my behavior more than a few times over the years. They had considered everything from child molestation to abuse from classmates. Hearing the story I was telling him, he told me he was both relived and it saddens him at the same time, because I had felt the need to carry the burden of inside for all these years. 

The both of us was crying at this point as we held each other. 

oOoOo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be updated when I am done with these texts.


	2. A new beginning part 2

A few more years went by and finally the right year came. I had opted to move back home to stay with my dad, no longer to afraid to meet the four teens who had changed my life. It did not lie well with me that dad was living alone in that big house in his old age, and since I had no family of my own except him I would not take up too much space. Dad welcomed me with a happy smile. 

Despite the fact I might never meet my former friends again I knew this year was something to celebrate anyway. What was happening with Spencer, Martha, Fridge and Bethany was the reason I was here today. If the teens had not found the game, I would never have returned. Never been given the opportunity to celebrate Christmas together with my father. I had a discussion with dad and the two of us decided to celebrate this years Christmas with extra decorations and present the house as a small castle. 

Even if I at this point was almost forty years I wanted to meet my former friends again. Nonetheless I did not dare to contact them first, if ever.

oOoOo

After work one day in December I went to buy a Christmas tree. With some help from the seller we managed to tie it to the top of my car. 

As I drove home my stomach was filled with butterflies for no reason. It was almost as if my body knew something I could not yet see.

I stopped in front of my house, and dad came out to help me with the tree. When I turned around to talk to him I noticed something, or someone to be exact, standing a little further down the street. 

My heart stopped for a moment as I studied the four teens standing there, looking at me with the same question in their eyes. I know I told my father something, but I can not remember what. My feet was already dragging me in the direction of the four figures. 

As I was right in front of them I stopped for a moment to study them. One by one I address them with the correct names. I might not have seen them as they were presented to myself right now before, but even after twenty years I instantly knew who was who.  
And then there was Bethany. She was even more beautiful than I have ever imagined in my most desperate moments. Her eyes was sparkling, and her long blond hair framed her perfect face beautifully. It felt so right to have her close, to be lost in her eyes.  
In the end I had to shake my head a little, informing myself that I was twenty years her senior and it was not right for me to lust for a girl who was hardly legal. The age of consent in this state was sixteen, and I knew Bethany was older than that, but still it was morally wrong to look at her the way I was right now.

Ordering myself to shift my focus and after a small conversation I invited the four of them into my home. All of them agreed and walked behind me in the direction of the front door. There my father was standing, having seen everything which had just happened. He gave me a searching look and asked me if everything was okay. I returned with a big smile telling him everything was perfect while introdicing the four teens behind me. 

He obviously knew a few of them before since they said hello with a familiar clang to their voices, even Bethany. The only one he did not know was Martha. 

I gave him a small glare then, he knew about Bethany, and he had even seen her before me in real life. Dad just gave me a small pat on the shoulder, signaling that we would talk about it later. 

Seeing all of them inside my house, helping to decorate the Chirstmas tree together with myself and my father warmed my heart in a way it has not done since I was a child. If only mother would had been here too, then everything would had been perfect.  
When it became late the teens had to go home for the day, but they all promised to visit sometime in the future and we exchanged phone numbers.

Before they walked out the door I had to ask them if they did not find it strange that I was now a old man. For a moment they were all quiet then Spencer took the lead “Do you not find it strange that I am so young? After all in the game I was character older than what you are now. Fridge is tall in real life, Bethany is a cute girl and Martha is makeup free. We are all different that what the game portrayed us to be, including you.” 

Bethany came forward and put her hand over my heart and said “It is who you are inside that is most important to us, and I for one can feel the connection to you in this body as well as the one inside jumanji”. She could probably feel my heart beating faster and faster but she did not remove her hand until I shockingly agreed with their statements. I could feel the connection as well. I have felt it for twenty years, I wanted to tell her. Unfortunately this was not something you told a girl so much younger than yourself.

Soon after they all said goodbye and left.

oOoOo

Dad was waiting for me when I went to the living room again. “Are you okay?” was the first thing he asked me. For a moment I did not know what to say. Everything was almost to much. She had been to much. 

Despite everything and our age different I did not feel like the group of teens was to young for me, I had fun commiserating with them. When they talked about jumanji, for them it had only been one day or so, but for me it had been twenty years. Nonetheless I could remember everything like it was yesterday for me as well.  
Even my lips tingle a little when I remembered Bethany's lips to mine. At that time she might have been a middle aged man, but I knew the pressure I had felt against my lips had been from that blond girl, not the middle aged man. 

Instead of answering my father, I focused on the fact that he had know three of them before. Dad replied that he did not exactly know them. In the past he had only known of them, but after I confessed my story to him he had began to say hello and such when he met them. After all, the boys at least went by our house almost daily. Bethany was mostly focused on her phone when she passed once in a while, but he had managed to have a small conversation here and there with her as well. When dad told me about meeting her I tried to dig for information. In the end he only replies with that he hoped she would grow up a little in the years considering how superficial she portrayed herself to be. 

I could not do anything except to laugh at his description. He was probably right, originally she would not be the type of girl which would interest me. But inside jumanji I had felt a connection to her the moment I had focused on the woman behind the character. She was special. A superficial teenager would not sacrifice one of her own lives in order to save someone she had met just a day before. 

In the end I told dad I felt the need to lay down. It might not be that late in evening but I was exhausted by today's events.  
Father could probably see the exhaustion on my face and let me go with a small good night and that the was proud of me. I felt grateful I had such an understanding dad and told him such before I walked up the stairs to my bedroom. 

oOoOo

As I sat on my bed my thoughts was going over everything which had just happened. I had finally met them in real life, finally seen her. My heart was beating strong just thinking about her. She was everything I had imagined and more. 

I just wish she had been older. Right now she was way to young for me. 

As I sat there a thought suddenly struck me. She was probably a lot more experienced with the opposite sex than me. After all, inside the game she was the one trying to make Martha flirt with those guys. Comments from both her and the boys expressed a certainty on how she was popular with boys, and that she was an expert on flirting. 

Imagining her with someone else made a burning fire of jealousy fill my whole being. I had waited twenty years to just see her, and during those years others were given the opportunity to make her smile, laugh and to touch her intimately. 

My thoughts was broken when my mobile phone started beeping. As I touched the screen it light up with information from Facebook. Quickly I open the page and I could see friends request from all four of them. Without even thinking of it I added all four of them with a few touches. 

One by one I began searching their page for information, they had after all given me a silent permission when they had sent me the requests. Spencer's page was filled with information about different games and other geek stuff, Fridge's profile picture was of himself proudly showing his name on the back of his football shirt, and Martha's page was filled with complicated science information I had trouble understanding except for one thing, she hated sport.

I had saved the best for last and looked on Bethany's page. It was filled with photos of herself, and often her girlfriends. A few times there was a guy standing next to her as well. Holding her waist, kissing her cheeks and such. My anger burned when I read a few of the comments under her pictures. Most of them was innocent, but a few comments from other guys pissed me off. Comments like “i’d tap dat” and guys references her to their baby or such made me almost hurl my phone in the wall. 

On her Facebook page she had a link to her Instagram page. 

I wish I never had pushed on that link.

Suddenly I had access to a lot more pictures. This time they were a lot more sexual. The last picture she posted was of herself almost sleeping. She was not correctly dressed, and she was showing too much of her underwear. 

Did she not know there was a lot of perverted people out there who would love to watch pictures like this of beautiful young girls...like me.

I was almost hard just seeing the pictures. 

Quickly after I had to put the phone away. It was not good for my health to see things like those seemingly innocent, but yet erotic pictures of Bethany. 

I turned of the light and fell asleep soon after. 

I do wish I could have said my dreams that night was not filled with all the things me and Bethany could do together in my bed, but unfortunately I woke up the next morning with her name on my lip

oOoOo


	3. A new beginning part 3

Days went by and I got almost daily updates from Spencer. He told me he and Martha was finally a couple, and that Fridge was yet again the best friend he had during childhood. Fridge was working hard on one of the classes he had failed, but since he had both Spencer and Martha to help him I was going great. Bethany was not that into schoolwork herself, but she was cheering him from the sidelines. 

Every few days I would get text from Fridge and Martha as well. Everyone except the one I longed for. But, the texts from Spencer was filled with information about all of them. Spencer wrote to me how the people around them was all surprised by their changed personalities. Mostly those around Bethany. 

Nowadays she was not carrying her phone around as if she would die without it. She respected the teachers, well mostly, and was trying to convince her best friend to go camping with her. The four of them would hang around each other during free time at school. Some of their original friends had some problems with that, but none of them cared. 

In reply I told Spencer about my life these last few (twenty) years. Not all of it of course, who was I to tell a teen younger than me that unlike him I had never had a girlfriend. And of course I never told him why.  
I nagged about my job, and the responsibility of being a grown up.

One evening, in one of the few phone calls between myself and Spencer he told me about how they all remembered my father and my house. Unlike everyone else the four of them remembers how I had been missing for twenty years and how my father had changed into a strange, sad, old man. How the house I was living in had been described as a haunted house. 

I am a man enough to admit I began crying when I imagined my father left alone in this big house, not knowing what had happened to me. 

The next time me and dad had a father and son evening in front of the fireplace with our beer in hand I told him about my conversation with Spencer. We both began crying while hugging each other, imagining how depressing that life must have been. 

Before going to bed that evening I told dad that I loved him. He replied with a “I love you too, son”. That night my dreams was not filled with Bethany, og nightmares from my time alone in jumanji. It was filled with the sad life my father had experiences in another reality. 

The next morning I had troubles opening my eyes because of all the tears I had cried during my sleep.

oOoOo

Everything changed yet again with one small text. 

As I sat at work in front of my computer my phone made a small sound, signaling a new message. When I opened the message my heart stopped.   
“I miss you”. Three small words, sent from Bethany. 

I had no idea what to reply, and therefore let the phone lie on my desk for hours as I tried to finnish today's tasks. When my workday was over I had hardly done anything except to think of those three small words. Honestly I wanted to call her in order to confess how I had missed her for over twenty years. But I could not make myself do so. It was not right.

The message followed me during the whole day. Out shopping at a supermarket. While trying to decide which milk to buy, a small whisper in my head, I miss you, distracted me. Sharing dinner with my aging father, the words kept on distracting me as he talked. In the end dad stopped talking, having realized I was not listening.   
After the meal I helped him clean up. I might have told him good night as I went up.

As I stood in front of the bathroom mirror looking at my aged face I could not comprehend how someone could miss this, miss me. There was nothing special about me. 

Lying in bed that night the words cept on flowing back and forth. I miss you, I miss you, I miss you. 

No getting a wink of sleep I gave up when the clock bicked four. Sitting up in my bed against the headboard I grabbed my mobile from the nightstand. No longer having the energy to resist what I wanted, I typed in a few words and pushed the send button. “I miss you too”.  
I waited a few minutes for a reply, but when nothing came I concluded she was probably asleep.

 

At least I felt a inner calm having managed to send off an reply and therefor fell asleep.

oOoOo

The next day I woke up with my phone still clutched in my hand.

No new message. 

On one hand I was disappointed, on the other I was kind of relieved.   
She was still a teenager and therefore nothing good would come out of it.

Days came and went. No new message from Bethany. 

Like a weak man I searched online for updates on her facebook profile and her instagram page the next weekend. I just needed to feel close to her in one way or the other. Since that time when she and the other three teens had helped me and my father decorate our christmas tree I had visited her pages more than I felt comfortable to admit.

When I logged on and found her profile this time I was met by a shock. Most of her pictures was gone. All of the sexy ones had been removed and instead there was pictures of a smiling girl surrounded by friends, or pictures from nature trips she had taken these last few months. 

Like me, the experience from jumanji had probably changed her view on life as well. 

Considering how jealous and excited I had been by those pictures I was glad they were gone. Nonetheless I missed them. They were a way for me to see her when I could not do so in real life. A way to still my hunger.

Without thinking about it I sent her a text message asking her why she had deleted her photos.   
Before I could put down my phone again it beeped, signalizing a new text. It was a reply from her. She wrote “I do not feel like they represent who I want to be any longer.” Not even giving me an opportunity to reply she sent another text ”Why? Do you miss them?”

How do I answer something like that without sounding like the perverted man I was?

Of course I missed them, but seeing her in so little cloates was not something she should advertise online where everyone could see them. Selfishly I felt like they should be for my eyes only. 

Acting more my age than I felt right now I relied with a “I think you made the right choice, somethings should be left in private.” Her next text made my blood flow south “Do you want the private pictures?” Hell yeah, I wanted to send back. Instead I had to act as the grown up out of the two of us and wrote back, informing her that it would not be right for her to send those pictures to a man twenty years older than her. 

Her next reply almost broke me “What if I want you to see them?” Oh, how I wanted to see them. 

 

With sweat running down my face, and shaking fingers I typed, and retyped a message again and again.

In the end I just wrote back “It is not right.” With those words I did not lie to her, I just told the truth. Luckily, for my health, she didn't text back.

oOoOo


	4. A new beginning part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bethany is at a party and sendt some texts.

Months later, one late Saturday she began texting me again. This time she was obvious at a party, and probably had more than her fair share of alcohol.

It started almost innocently "Why are you not here?" and "Wish you were her" in the end I decided not to answer her, arguing with myself I was doing the right thing.

Despite my lack of replies as the hours went from evening and over to night time the text kept on coming.

"Boys my age are so stoooopid", "Why do you not want me, I want you" and the one who almost broke me "I miss you".

I started walking back and forward in my room, loudly talking to myself in order to try to convince myself I was doing the right thing in not answering her.

After midnight her text escalated in a way I did not like at all. "His hand doesn't feeel good as yours" and "who d guys no tak a no for no". I was beginning to rip out my hair in frustration. Instead of texting her I sent a text to both Spencer and Fridge, asking them if they were around Bethany. Hoping they could stop whatever was happening with Bethany. Shortly after they both replied that they were home alone.

Fridge knew of the party and said he could send me the address if I wanted it. When I got the next message from Bethany I broke "Save mee...". I grabbed the keys to my car and called Fridge, telling him to give me the address.

He did not question the desperation in my voice and told me where the party was as I started my car.

Luckily the address was not far from where I lived and in less than a two minutes later I parked outside a building where the music was louder than what should be legal. Walking inside I felt older than I was. All around me barely legal boys and girls was drinking and partying harder than all my years combined in college.

Desperately I looked around for the familiar blond hair. Pushing my way through the masses as I searched around I saw something which made my eyes turn red.

On a couch in the left corner of the room was two figures. One big guy touching the breast of a girl who lying on the couch as she was hardly responding. The bastard was touching my girl.

With a strength I hardly knew I had I dragged the guy off the girl. Throwing him away without a care in the world. The guy came back and protested, but I just gave him a glare and he backed off.

Bethany lied partly on the couch and partly lying down the side as a ragged doll. Not showing any reaction as I had removed the guy. I went down on my knees in front of her and looked straight at her, shaking her a little as I asked her if she was fine.

Her glassy eyes found mine after a while. With a drunk smile on her face she finally said "Heyyy, youuu…you came". I almost wanted to cry. I pushed her part of her hair away from her face as I asked her if she wanted to go home. She kept on looking at me, and gave me a small nod.

I grabbed the phone which was lying in the floor next to her hand and put it in my back pocket. Quickly I concluded she was way too drunk to walk herself, and therefore I put one hand under her knees and the other under her shoulder. Pushing some strength in my knees I lifted her up from the couch and carried her out of the party. Around me I could hear someone cat whistle but I ignored everyone except the drunk girl in my hands.

She let her head rest against my chest, and her hands touched the area where my heart was beating loudly. Honestly I almost felt like one of the heroes in romantic movies, carrying the female character out from a dangerous situation.

My car was parked right outside the house and I managed to open the car door without dropping her. When I bent myself over her in order to put on her the seat-belt, one of her hands came up and held my face as she pushed her face forward. Her drunk lips touched mine for a second before her grip slackens and she feel asleep.

Like a innocent schoolgirl I could no nothing except to touch my own lips in shock. This was not the way I thought my first kiss in almost a decade would happen. Least of all my first kiss with the woman I loved.

In the end my back protested the position I was standing in and I backed away from her. Standing up I stretched a little as I looked around to see if anyone had noticed what had just happened. Luckily it looked like the drunk teenagers outside the house was to focused on themselves to see one small innocent kiss.

Before walking into the car in the driver seat I gave myself a few deep breaths in order to calm my heart down a little.

It was not until I started the car that I realized I had no idea where Bethany lived. I texted both Fridge and Spencer again for her address, but none of them replied.

In the end I drove her back to my house. I know it might not have been the smartest thing to do, but I had nowhere else to leave her. Beside after having seen that boy over her I felt a strong need to comfort myself with knowing she was in a safe place. I might be a little obsessed with the girl sleeping next to me in the car, but there was no way I would ever touch her in an indecent way when she was unconscious. I just felt a strong need to have her close to me.

When I parked the car outside my house I let my eyes rest on the girl beside me. How had thing ended up like this, why had she drunk so much, and why did she let that bastard touch her like that? When I had arrived she was barely conscious. Nonetheless she had texted me about someone touching her earlier and therefore she had to have been more conscious when she allowed that to happen.

I let out a sad sigh. As the situation was right now, there was no way I was going to get an answer.

When I got out of the car I noticed the light was on in the house. Dad was obviously still awake.

As I walked around the car and opened the other car door, I heard the sound of the front door to my house opened as well. Looking over at the entrance I noticed my father standing there under the light. When he saw the unconscious girl inside my car he came closer obviously curious about the situation.  
I just gave him a negative shake and lifted the girl out and into my hands.

Recognizing her face he obviously wanted to ask questions, but I stopped him when I whispered one word, "later," as I walked past him. Since he had left the front door open it was easy for me to walk inside. Considering the guestrooms in our house had not been used in years I did not wish to leave her there. Instead I walked up the stairs and into my own bedroom. Laying her gently down on my own bed.

As I put the duvet over her I gave a sad smile while looking at her face. She was wearing to much makeup, but she was still beautiful.

Her lipstick was smeared as if someone had kissed her roughly. When I noticed it I almost felt like crying. Not wishing to see that detail any longer I licked my thumb and used it to rub of her lipstick. Removing any trace of someone stranger kissing her. Trying to remove the hint of the other boy. Her lips was nicer natural anyway.

Seeing her in my bed my heart broke a little.

Like the kiss, this was not the way I dreamt of her in my bed for the first time. In my dreams she would be awake, welcoming me with her thin arms stretched in my direction.

I kissed her forehead gently. Leaving her phone on the nightstand and left the room.

My father stood alone in the hallway waiting for me.

I walked past him without saying anything. My head and heart was hurting right now and I needed a few seconds to myself. Without thinking about it my feet carried me to the kitchen where I grabbed a beer from the fridge. Drinking almost the whole bottle in one go. I grabbed another one and walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. My head was trying to collect itself after what I had seen and done in the last half hour.

After a few minutes I felt the couch move a little as my father sat down next to me.

Like past episodes on this couch I opened my heart to my father. Telling him about some of the text without going into detail. How Bethany had asked me to save her. I told him I had no idea where she lived and therefore could not take her home, and instead took her here. Almost shyly I even admitted how I wanted her close considering the state she was in.

Dad listen to my story and told me I had done the right thing. He stood up and found me a pillow and a blanket since it was obvious I would be sleeping on the couch tonight. I went to the kitchen and filled up a glass with water and with two pills of aspirin I carried them up to my bedroom. I left everything on my nightstand next to her phone. Quickly exited before I gave in and gave her another kiss like I desperate wanted to do.

As I am lying on the lumpy couch all my thoughts was centered on the girl upstairs. Considering she might be a little afraid waking up in strange bed I sent her mobile a message before turning of the lights for the night.

"Do not worry, nothing happened. You are at my house. Love Alex"

 

oOoOo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it might be a little depressing chapter, but I felt like they needed the push. Hope you liked it.


	5. A new beginning part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter...

The next morning, after hardly any sleep, I made myself a cup of coffee. As I drunk it I stood over the sink looking into the back garden. I noticed dads car no longer in the driveway, and since it was Sunday he might be out visiting a friend.

While standing there looking out at nothing interesting, a thought suddenly popped into my head. Yesterday I had put the word love in the text message I sent to Bethany.

It was no lie, but it was wrong of me and I hope she would not realize what I wrote when she finally woke up and read the message.

A few hours and three coffee cups later, I heard gentle footsteps walking down the stairs. From my place on the couch I just turned my head away from the tv and in the direction of the new sound. Dressed in one of my big band t-shirts and little else Bethany entered the living room. It was obvious she had tried to remove parts of her smug eye makeup from the night before with moderate success. Nonetheless seeing her like that was enough for my imagination to run wild.

After gaping at her for a while she shyly asked me if she could get a cup of coffee as well. Without saying anything I stood up and made her a cup before handing it over to her as she waited on the couch. Not knowing how to handle the situation I quietly sat down on the other half of the couch.

Finally finding my voice I asked her if she needed to contact her parents since she did not go home yesterday. She held both of her hand on the cup and would not look at me as she informed me they did not expect her to come home. They thought she was spending the night at her girlfriends house.

Hearing she had planned yesterday to stay out all night made something click inside. In rage I stood up, and let one of my hands drag through my hair. No longer containing my frustration and worry from what had happened last night, I began yelling at her. All the things wrong with what had happened yesterday. Why she had gone to that party in the first place, why she had drunk so much, why she had texted me, and why the hell did she let that boy touch her.

When I was done with my lecture she calmly put her almost empty coffee cup on the table in front of her and said "Why should you care? It is normal for a young person, such as myself, to drink and to party. It is normal for girls my age to appreciate attention from the opposite sex. It it also, unfortunate, normal to drunk text the guys they think about." With her last words she looked me straight in the eyes, arguing me to question her logic.

Her words left me speechless.

I knew I had no hold on the young woman sitting on my couch, but in my heart there would be no one else but her. It hurt me that she let herself go like she had last night.

With a low sadness to my voice I could not hold back one last question "Does it not feel wrong for you?" Was I the only one would would forever live without the touch of the opposite sex.

More angry than I have ever seen her she pushed herself up from the couch. "Of course it is bloody uncomfortable. You are the only one I want, but you do not want to have anything to do with me. You text Spencer as if he is your best friend. Even Martha and Fridge gets weekly tekst from you. By me? Me you ignore! It you ever reply to one of my teksts it takes hours, it not days before I get something small in return. You reject me at every possible opportunity I try to connect with you. So I drink a little to forget, and try to have a good time. But because of a connection to you, every touch from another man is uncomfortable. It is frustrating. I thought maybe if I drink enough maybe I might enjoy being touched. Guess what, it didn't work!"

By the end of her speech she was crying. Tears was running down her cheeks and I thought I have never seen anything so beautiful.

Before I had realized what I had done my hands was around her petite waist. I was crying into her hair, begging her for forgiveness. After what might have been hours my hands loosen up and let her go as I took a step backwards.

Gathering my courage I told her with a shaking voice that "I didn't mean to make you feel that way. It is just that I have had twenty years with this connection. It is already a part of me and it has become natural for me not to touch other women since I came back from jumanji."

Her eyes widen with realization. She might have felt rejected and alone for a few months, but I had waited for her a lot longer. "But. But, why do you not want me?" she asked with an uncertain sound to her voice.

A little frustrated I dragged my hands through my hair a few times before I looked at her small figure again. "It is not that I do not want you. I really do. I yearn for you in a way I did not think was human possible. But you are just a child, I am twenty years your senior. It is just not right."

Stubbornly Bethany argued that she was no longer a child. She was even over the age of consent. Telling me that twenty years age difference was nothing. The connection between the two of us made it impossible for her to enjoy the touch of others anyway so I needed to get of my high horse and start touching her.

Weakly I gave in and reduces the distance between us and grabbed her face with both my hands and let my lips crush against hers. I kissed her like I have never kissed anyone before. Letting the scent and taste of her indulge me as I kissed her as if I would die without her lips.

She quickly reacted and returned the kiss with the same intensity.

I felt her hands grabbing hold of my shirt and for a moment it felt like I had died and entered a heaven I normally did not believe in.

In the end the kiss slowed down when the need for air was to much. Despite the fact we were both breathing hard we did not let each other go. No longer managing to told it back any longer I gently whispered against her lips that I loved her. She let her hands fall from my chest and instead circled them around my waist. Hugging me closer. Her response "I love you too" almost made my heart burst in happiness.

Selfishly I held on to her for as long as I could before my mind began to think realistically again.

With one last inhale of her scent I let her go and took a step back.

Her questioning eyes searched mine for a reason as to why broke our hug.

A little scared I did not dare to look in her eyes as I yet again proclaimed that a relationship between the two of us was impossible. Our age difference was to big for society to accept us.

The silence in the room was depressing. Only broken by our loud breathing.  
My mind was transfixed on the kiss which had just taken place, but some part of my brain knew I had done the right thing when I ended the connection. Since it was probably the only real kiss I would ever share with the girl next to me I wanted to savor the feeling for as long as I could.

In the end Bethany's voice interrupted my thoughts. "Do you know the age difference between my parents are twenty three years? Even more important, dad used to be moms high school teacher? They are still happily married and have been for over twenty five years, and they do not share the connection I made when I gave you one of my lives."

Her questions and statement surprised me. I had no idea.

The last of my resistance broke and I could not do anything except to take her in my arms again.

After a while we sat down together on the couch. Bethany was leaning against my chest and my hand over her shoulder, holding her close. It felt like I was dreaming. As we sat there we tried to discuss our future realistically. Despite the fact no one of us really felt like it, the both of us knew we should probably try to keep everything a secret until she had graduated in a few months. For now we should try to stick to texting instead of real meetings in order to hinder temptations.

When we finally managed to let each other go I had managed to find some of my mother's former clothes for Bethany to wear. I loved my father too much to give him a heart attack.

Not long after my dad returned home. Like I had in the past I told him everything, without too much details of course. This time with Bethany by my side.

oOoOo

Months flew by even slower that they did when I had been inside jumanji alone.

After just a few days I had to order Bethany to stop sending pictures. It was not good for my heart. Her reply "I like it when you are strict to me" did not help at all.  
In the end I learned that the best for the both of us was for me to ignore those texts.

Finally the day for her graduation came and as she accepted her diploma I clapped loudly with a proud smile. When she walked down from the stage she did not go to her parents like I thought she would. Instead she came right at me, grabbing a hold behind my head and dragged me down to an amazing kiss. At first I tried to protest, but then I thought what the heck, and dragged her even closer. Kissed her back with everything I had.

When we stopped I heard a familiar voice loudly proclaiming "I knew it, Spencer you owe me 50 bucks!" As I turned in the direction if the voices a "Aw man, could you not wait until after the ceremony Bethany?" came from Spencer.

Spencer, with his hand around Martha's waist and Fridge was all standing close to us. Everyone of them with bright smiles on their faces.

Next to the group was the two persons I had been dreading for a while. Bethany's parents.

Which had just seen their young daughter make out with an old man. Kill me now.

Bethany, beautiful but ignorant Bethany, did not notice my tension and dragged me toward her parents. Eager to introduce us.

Despite the fact that I wanted to run away I knew I had to man up and face the couple. I gave them a small smile when she introduced us, and shook their hands.

"So you are the man that changed my daughter" Her mother asked me. To be completely honest I had no idea what she meant. Her mother noticed my confusion and said "She stopped partying, and has these last few months become more grateful. To be perfectly honest, we know our daughter is spoiled, but lately she has grown mentally more than a few milestones. Her hand is no longer stuck to her phone and we can even have conversations with her face to face again." As her mom kept on talking Bethany began blushing. She was so cute!

Not knowing exactly how to respond I carefully said that I could not take the credit for Bethany's change. She had made the shift herself personally after all, with some help from jumanji. But of course I could not tell them the last part.

As I was talking to Bethany's mother her father had stood on the sideline with a slightly judgmental look. In the end I made myself focus on him as he opened his mouth. Then came a question I dreaded "How old are you exactly?"

Not missing a beat I quickly replied with a "Younger then you were when you started dating your wife". For a moment I thought it might have been the wrong thing to say, but after a short pause he began laughing. With a sly smile on his face he tried to put on a strict demeanor and asked another dreadful question "And what is your plan for the future with my daughter?" Yet again I told him the truth "Considering today is our first official day dating I was thinking marriage in around a years time."

As both her parents laughed I felt Bethany's questioning eyes from my side. I gave her a bright smile and a nod. What I was given in return was a smile brighter than the sun. Since we were standing right in front of her parents I managed to hold back from kissing her. Instead I gave her hand a small squeeze.

This might have been the first time I have ever mention the word marriage in front of Bethany, but I knew from the first real kiss that I wanted to marry her. Heck the next day I began searching for a unique ring. A week later I found the perfect ring, and since it had been lying in my nightstand drawer. Just hope she likes my idea with the emerald.

After the ceremony was completed I accepted a dinner invitation from Bethany's parents. Everything went surprisingly well considering our age difference, and the conversations had a nice flow to it.

oOoOo

Two year to the day after Bethany had returned from jumanji we were married.

oOoOo

the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do hope I'm not letting anyone down with that ending. In a way I felt the acceptance from her parents might be a little to easy, but they have watched a daughter they have (probably) had trouble controlling, from a phone addicted girl to someone who wanted to go camping. Now I know Alex is not the only reason, but her parents do not. And considering they themselves has a large gap in age I think it might have worked.   
> Since you have now read my story, can you please write one yourself with this couple and publish it? I would be forever greatful if you do.

**Author's Note:**

>   
>  Hope this ff can inspire others to write more ff as well so that I have more to read...


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